North American Mantids

[dgerndt]

If any of you saw my thread in the Mantid Photos section, you'll know that I'm doing a final project on North American mantids. They don't have to be native, they just have to live here (like Chinese). By North America, I mean ALL of North America, not just the United States. I have come up with a list of 15 species so far with help from bugguide.net, but some of you have said that my list is missing some species. I tried looking up the species on Google, but I haven't been able to find anything other than the fact that there are 20 species that live here. <_< So I was wondering if any of you could help me complete my list? Here are the species I have listed so far:

Chinese (Tenodera sinesis)

European (Mantis religiosa)

Carolina (Stagmomantis carolina)

Texas/Mexican Unicorn (Phyllovates chlorophaena)

Arizona Unicorn (Pseudovates arizonae)

Grizzled Bark (Gonatista grisea)

Brunner's (Brunneria borealis)

Litaneutria minor

Litaneutria obscura

California (Stagmomantis californica)

Larger Florida (Stagmomantis floridensis)

Stagmomantis limbata

Yersiniops solitarium

Yersin's Ground (Yersiniops sophronicum)

Iris oratoria

I also need pictures of all these species, so if you wouldn't mind letting me use a few, that would be so wonderfully helpful! The quality doesn't need to be very good, I just need one picture of each species. If you want to read my other thread, click here. That would also probably be the best place to post a reply about photo use.

Thanks so much for your help! You guys (and girls) are great!!!

 

[Mike Maxwell]

Hi,

The leading book on North American mantids:

Helfer, J.R. 1987. How to know the grasshoppers, crickets, cockroaches and their allies; revised 2nd edition. Dover Pub.; New York.

Despite the somewhat whimsical title, it is fairly authoritative.

You've included a good chunk of the species in Helfer's book. I've added the remainder that you've missed.

Phyllovates chlorophaea (check your spelling)

Mantoida maya (FL, Mexico)

Thesprotia graminis (SE USA)

Oligonicella mexicana (into Central America)

Oligonicella scudderi (SE USA)

Tenodera angustipennis (East Coast)

Stagmomantis gracilipes (Arizona)

 

[PhilinYuma]

Here is the longest and probably the funniest thread on this subject. We trot it out once or twice a year: http://mantidforum.net/forums/index.php?showtopic=15593&pid=110885&st=40entry110885

Post number 54 divides US mantids into native and introduced and throws in a few mantis flies for luck. It also includes the only Canadian mantis (Google Canadian mantis!) that also occurs in the U. S.

Probably half a dozen of these sneak across the border, without documentation, into Mexico. Phasmocrantis sumichrasti, the Mexican bush mantis, is the only that I can think of off the top of my head, that is not found in the US.

The good news is that your teacher won't know either! You might try for a few more Mexicans, though.

 

[Hypoponera]

Do you have a reference for Litaneutria obscura? Where is it found?

 

[PhilinYuma]

Do you have a reference for Litaneutria obscura? Where is it found?

I so much enjoy yr posts, Mike! Bloody good question! I can't answer for for Deby, but it was you who turned me onto Helfer and we both know that he doesn't include L. obscura. The culprit seems to be Scudder when he made his insect collection in the Southwest around when was it, 1890? The Museum at Texas A&M lists seven Litaneutria spp: borealis, longipennis, minor, obscura, occularis, pacifica (misspelled - hope it wasn't the type specimen!) and skinneri. I didn't take a look, but I think that Peter mentions or mentioned L. californicum as well. I'm sure that most or all of these, except minor, have been demoted to synonyms by now. All of them predate Helfer, so he must have chosen to disregard them. The person who could give us the latest "authoritative" word is Yen. Are you there, Yen?

 

[dgerndt]

Hypoponera, I found Litaneutria obscura on bugguide.net. They only include bugs of North America. Click here to go directly to the page.

Wow, thanks everyone! There are a lot more species than I thought. Now the challenge is getting a photo of each one. :blink:

 

[Hypoponera]

That name keeps popping up. I have not seen it listed in any key and can not find any ref. to it. I also assumed it to be just a synonym. But it keeps reappearing so maybe it is valide? Hence why I hope to get a ref. Be nice to have another native to hunt down!!

I did look at the photos Deby. Looks like L. minor to me. But I would need a specimen to ID for certain. An unusual color morph just the same though! 2 of the photos are identified as males, but look to be females instead.

 

[dgerndt]

All right, I finished my final project and i decided to dramatically cut the species list. I just simply didn't have enough time to get enough photos to complete it. But, if you all are curious about how it turned out, I can show you.

Here's my project!

Thanks for all your help! I might end up finishing the species guide later just because it could be helpful.

 

[Schloaty]

Hi Deby,

Your project looks great! Are you still making edits to it? If so, I did find one of my own pet-peeve in your first sentence:

Praying mantises (also called mantids) are very unique insects.

There is no such thing as "very unique." It is either Unique (one of a kind) or simply unusual.

Other than that INCREDIBLY knit-picky comment, I think it's great!

 

[patrickfraser]

Just change "very" to "truly".. You're all set! There's always a critical critic to criticize.

 

[dgerndt]

Haha, sorry Schloaty, I turned my project in last Saturday. I could still edit it, but my teacher may get mad because it was already turned in. Anyway, it's not being graded on content, just coding and appearance. Thanks for the correction, though. I'll keep that in mind for future reference. I wrote the content pretty quickly the day before it was due, so I was pretty sure there would be some mistakes.